Sister Marjana Lleshi awoke in the early hours of Wednesday morning to the violent shaking of the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that killed 250 people, devastating several towns in central Italy.

Wounded and trapped under her bed as her convent in Amatrice crumbled to the ground around her, Sr. Lleshi thought for sure that death was imminent, and began sending messages to loved ones telling them goodbye.

However, just when her hope had run out and she was ready to let go, she heard the voice of Louis, a young Columbian caregiver assisting at their home for the elderly, calling out for anyone who might still be alive – a voice she refers to as her “angel” from God.

“I looked around and saw everything was crumbling,” Sr. Lleshi said in an Aug. 25 interview with SIR, the official news agency of the Italian bishops.

She said she had woken up about 30 minutes after the initial shock from the earthquake around 3:30 a.m., and saw rubble falling around her as she came to her senses.

“I had a cut on my head and I asked for help. I looked toward the street, where people were lost and confused,” she said, but “no one responded to me.”

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